A Very Short AP Blurb quotes Attorney General John Ashcroft as saying there’s a lot of “hysteria” about the F-B-I snooping into Americans’ reading habits.
In a speech to the American Restaurant Association, Ashcroft says the Justice Department doesn’t really care what you’re reading. He says they’re mostly interested in the public computers at libraries, which terrorists have been known to use to communicate.
See also: Ashcroft bars the doors to democracy, and in San Rafael, 200 opponents of the USA Patriot Act packed the San Rafael City Council chambers last night before the council unanimously approved guidelines on how to handle provisions of the Sept. 11-inspired federal law.
[Yes, Rochelle pointed to it already] The NYTimes has a good headline, and a longer look: Ashcroft Mocks Librarians and Others Who Oppose Parts of Counterterrorism Law.
“If he’s coming after us so specifically, we must be having an impact,” said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the library association’s Washington office.
What Ashcroft and ALA/State Lib Assn should do
Let’s try taking Atty Gen. Ashcroft at his word. I think all 50 State Library Associations AND ALA should send a letter to him with copies to their Congressional delegation that makes these points:
1) We’re happy to hear that you’re not interested in the reading habits of Americans. If you want to convince us and the country of your sincerity, here are two easy actions you can take:
a) Immediately and PUBLICALY report the number of libraries and bookstores served with section 215 orders since the passage of USA PATRIOT.
b) Immediately endorse without reservation HR 1157, the “Freedom to Read Protection Act of 2003.”, which returns libraries to the realm of the ordinary courts. If you really don’t care what we read, this shouldn’t be a problem.
2) We would like to respectfully remind you that the FBI has an inglorious history of monitoring some library activity, most recently in the 1980s.
3) We would like to respectfully remind you that the FBI has a long and inglorious history of monitoring individual writers and artists, seemingingly from first amendment activity alone. You can read some of the their case histories at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex.htm.
These do not seem like the elements of hysteria to us.
Not everyone, stupid
Ashcroft is blowing the whole thing out of proportion and not addressing the complaints. We don’t think they want to know what ‘everyone’ is reading or doing at the library. The problem is that they want to know everything their targets are doing, and their targets don’t really need much definition. That’s the probem.
so right….
You are both so right. We have no enemies that hate the United States. Even if we did, they are not in our borders. Even if they are in our borders, they would stay put and talk on land lines that are in their names. Even if they decided to move around a lot and use anonymous communication, they wouldn’t use libraries. Even if they did use libraries, we wouldn’t know about that. Even if we did know about it, the ALA would want us to keep the patrons privacy in mind.
So, obviously the thing we should do is to repeal the Patriot act and believe that nice things are coming our way. We can hold hands and sing silly songs, knowing that no terrorists are stupid enough to come inside our borders, move around a lot, and use anonymous communication at our libraries. What a relief!
The Federalist
Re:so right…. ,is give peace a chance…
….All we are saying
Your right on Federalist.
I’m new to this site however I am looking for fellow academic librarians who may be courageous enough as to refuse Kool Aid that ALA generously serves. Diversity, that tiresome mantra chanted by ALA, seems to apply only to skin, gender, sexual orientation ,etc. but not to political ideology.
So, I come to this board looking for others who dare to speak against ALA. Judging by your previous post re the Patriot Act, of which I agree totally, you may be someone whom I may share similar positions.
Are there any anti-ALA’ers out there?????
Re:so right….
My guess is there’s pleanty of anti-ALA’ers around here, but few fans of PATRIOT.
One can be against many of the ALA ideas and policies, and still be against PATRIOT. There are many different sides to these complex issues, and to really understand them requires more than a little reading, which would require turning off the TV.
Smart people read, morons watch TV. There’s pleanty of morons on the left and the right.
Re:so right….
No argument on morons and boob tubes here.
Leaving the Patriot Act aside for now, my concern is the power and homogeneity of ALA. Where’s the dialogue?????? This organization doesn’t invite discussion.
If, as you say, there are plenty of anti-ALA’ers around here, why haven’t they collectively organized? ALA is the defacto mouthpiece for all librarians in this country yet little is heard from those who disagree.
I find this ironic, particularly from a profession that is built upon the open exchange of ideas and expression.